(alt universe where snes had 3 famous Mario games): Goes to show how great Mario is, having three Mario games in the SNES top ten.
(this universe): Goes to show how bad the Genesis is, having three Sonic games in the Genesis top ten.

Awesome list. I wonder if you played other great Genesis games, like Shining Force 1-2, Phantasy Star 2-4, Vectorman, Shinobi or Alien Soldier, since those are some great games and all of them deserves to be a big franchises (and Phantasy Star still lives)

Have you all forgot that this is his top 10, he could pick the 10 worst genesis games that were made, and it shouldn’t make a difference to us…its HIS TOP 10, as in his favorites not yours, mine, Samuel Jackson’s, or any other asshole’s list….his top 10. If your top 10 is different than make your own damn list!

I love the whole Sonic series (except Sonic Spinball). Sonic the Hedgehog-2 is my favorite! Great game, one of the best on Sega Genesis.
Also love Ecco the Dolphin I-II (beautiful and little bizzare game series) ,
Lion King, Golden Axe 3, TMNT: Hyperstone Heist (my first Sega game), Comix Zone, Earthworm Jim 2, Streets of Rage 2, World of Illusion… Oh, so many good games!..

I have 5 on the list 6 if you count the first Golden Axe, I think B&B and Splatterhouse-3 would be in my top ten of games I have on the GENESIS. Have a bunch of boxed carts on the wall I havent even tried out

Interesting list. I bought Casltevania Bloodlines recently based on your Castlevania reviews on AVGN and it is a fun game. It has an arcade feel to it. That is why I like the Genesis, when they do a game right it makes you feel as if you are in the arcade. I think SNES is the better machine as it does games that are more in depth, but the Genesis is not all that far behind in my eyes. I have seen Aladdin in a couple of people’s list for top game…is it really that good?

Good picks everyone, I just wanted to through out there that Final fantasy 7 took allot of ideas from Phantasy Star 2. The genesis was the start of many good franchises, some of which I wish they would continue to make. Streets of Rage *sniffle*. Ecco the Dolphin blew my mind at the time. Alien destroying dolphins!? oh hell yeah!

Best Sega Genesis games:
1. Genesis DOES crappier what Nintendo already DOES
2. Sega Genesis controllers SUCKED HARD
3. They had NO games to compare with SNES signature games like Zelda, Metroid, and so on.
4. Sonic the Hedgehog

Was never a big fan of the Genesis. I loved the Sonic games…but the rest just didn’t interest me. I was dedicated to the SNES, which I still see as the superior system. The SNES was the 16-bit system I had growing up, but I later bought a Genesis to get the Sonic games, and I found a few other games on it I liked during that time…but still don’t hold them in nearly as high regard as I do the games I like on the SNES. Here’s my top 10 Genesis games:

Good list, James. But you should play 2-player Streets of Rage 2. It is better than the original in every way, and the best beat-em up ever. You should also play Shining Force I and II, Phantasy Star IV, Warsong, Shadow Dancer, Eswat, Sparkster, Rocket Knight Adventures, Shadowrun, Shinobi III, and Zombies Ate my Neighbours, if you haven’t already. Gunstar Heroes is also one of the best games ever, it should be on every top 10 Genesis list.

Other quality titles to sub into my list:
Sonic 1/2/3/S&K
Ecco the Dolphin
Phantasy Star II/III: Generations of Doom (Predecessor of Record of Agarest War for the latter: D)
Shining Force II
Revenge of Shinobi
Eartworm Jim 1/2
MUSHA
Pulseman
Sub Terrania
Many others
Genesis/Mega Drive has a shit ton of good games

I had a small Genesis collection of about 20 games. My favorites from that stash were:

Spider-Man ( vs. The Kingpin)

– The best 2D Spider-Man game ever. Kingpin frames Spider-Man for a nuclear bomb that he planted in the city that is set to go off in 24 hours and he’s put a million dollar bounty on Spider-Man’s head. So you have all the citizens and police out to kill you and on top of that, you must locate all 5 keys somehow ( by tracking down villains and kicking their ass, then interrogating them ).

The game is intense, you have 24 hours or the bomb goes off. Everyone is out to kill you. You run out of webbing and have to buy more by taking photos; the better the photo, the more money you get, the more web cartridges you can buy.

Kingpin captures Mary Jane at one point and you have to rescue her while fighting every villain in the game while trying to disarm a nuclear bomb that will go off at any moment. If you put in the keys wrong, the timer rapidly counts down and the bomb goes off. If the bomb goes off, its game over, no retries, except for beginning the game all over.

One of the best games ever. If you haven’t played it, PLAY THIS FUCKING GAME.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

– Not the first person arcade shooter, but the sidescroller. It’s very close to the film and it feels so badass. You have your directives, you start out naked and take out a whole bar of bikers. You collect your clothes, get some weapons, check the phone book for John Connor, find a bike and drive to his home. You scope out the place and the T-1000 appears, blow him to hell, hear the answering machine from John’s friend mentioning he’ll see him at the mall. You go to the mall and the fucking mayhem that happens with you finding John, people running around, cops gunning you down, and the T-1000 showing up is memorable to say the least. The mental hospital is just as awesome while you have John and Sarah (shooting a handgun) tagging along and you must protect them, taking elevators while the T-1000 is on top slicing and dicing.

There’s more and I’ll admit, I never got past the driving to the desert location. Will try it again someday and I will definitely beat the game. That’s how I play games now. I play through at any costs, however long it takes.

This game is fucking amazing and so well done. The effects and little details are impressive.

The Adventures Of Batman And Robin

– Kinetic action that has impressive special effects and graphics. It’s just a blast to play. The music and action go together to create a wonderful experience. It’s not what you would expect from a Batman and Robin game, but it is surprisingly impressive.

james, i would really like you to review a silly sega genesis game in your next avgn review. we don’t see much of just ‘regular genesis’, usually just the 32x and CD ad-on junk… which i love seeing… i was always a nintendo kid, so i would imagine there are a lot of silly-ass genesis games (that i have never seen nor heard of ) that i would enjoy watching you review. that’s just my selfish request for a review if you are looking for any type of input…. yeah – or don’t and then i will still watch your videos and like ’em. heh heh heh.

Ah man, we don’t share any games in common this time, James! Well, at least for now anyway.

I still need to fully play through a Sonic The Hedgehog game before at least one of them makes my list (the same goes for Strider), but here are my current Top 10 Favorite Sega Genesis games:

1.NHL 97
This game still remains my all-time favorite sports simulation. I just love being able to create and trade players, practice the skills competition events (this was apparently the first game to feature such an option).

I have played NHL 97 so much that I just might know of all of the ways to score, including scoring with a goalie. The music really pumps me up too!

NHL 97 never gets old. In fact, I am still planning on attempting a perfect 82-0 regular season + 16-0 playoff season without ever giving up a goal or using any Transactions, should be tough, but fun :).

2.Mortal Kombat
This was the game that inspired me to get a Sega Genesis in the first place.

Gotta love those classic Test Your Might sessions, why the hell did they get rid of them?! The music featured in this game is actually different from the other ports and that’s actually a good thing!

I love to fight Goro and also unlocking the secret fight vs Reptile, who is actually a combination of Scorpion and Sub-Zero in this one, excellent!

This game never bored me, but rather inspired me to make my own Mortal Kombat board game! I wish that I still had it, but I believe that it might have gotten burnt in a basement fire, unfortunately!

While the original Mortal Kombat only has a handful of playable characters, they all possess unique fighting skills and are a lot easier to use, when compared to the sequels. The CPU became quite cheap, not allowing for any special moves to get through, especially in Mortal Kombat II, even on the easiest mode for Kombat’s sake! At least the original gives the player more of a chance to explore everything before cranking up the difficulty!

3.Road Rash 3
An epic anything goes style of racing game that is by far my all-time favorite of its kind!

From the ways in which the player can unleash utter mayhem on the competition (you name it: nunchuks, mace, wrench, cattle prod, oil cans, it’s all here!), upgrade to more awesome bikes, taunt the police officers (the useless ones on the motorcycles, unless your bike comes to a complete stop of course haha!), customize your name and rock on to the awesome tunes, this game just about has everything that an extreme racing player could ask for!

I used to rent this from the local Blockbuster Video many times back in the day and eventually bought it.

I’ve played Road Rash 3 so much over the years, that I eventually managed to complete every track on all 5 difficulty levels, without every getting knocked off the bike, while also finishing in 1st place.

The only thing that this game lacks is a better head-to-head 2P mode, as the split screen is terrible in this game! Also, an actual ending would have been nice, but I guess that this is considered to be a high score type of game, based on one’s total $ earnings, so I can cut it some slack haha :).

4.Virtual Bart
Aye Carumba! I must have spent enough money renting this game over and over again to actually buy it! While the game as a whole is not worthy of such a high ranking on this list, the only reason why it makes it here is because of the awesome tomato throwing level!

Those who have played this level would probably agree that it’s easily one of the most enjoyable levels in video gaming history. They even have Principal Skinner doing his trademark butt wiggle, which is a sign for Bart to launch a tomato at his ass to score extra tomatoes and time hahaha, brilliant! My friend Eddy and I laughed our asses off when we first saw this happen, it was hilarious :). The baby level is also pretty enjoyable, but hard as an adult!

One thing that always bothered me about this game was the swimming level. It just seemed so random and I could never figure it out! It was the one reason why I never managed to finish this game as a rental.

Years later, I learned what had to be done from reading the instruction manual and was then able to finally finish Virtual Bart! Most rental stores stopped letting people borrow game manuals, most likely because many of them had already been stolen, just my luck!

Anyway, if anyone has the option of either playing this or the Super Nintendo version, please do yourself a favor and stick with the Sega Genesis game, as it’s surprisingly more well balanced and less challenging overall, seriously!

5.Evander Holyfield’s “Real Deal” Boxing
While it’s definitely no Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!, this game does a great job simulating the sport of boxing (even down to the Round card woman, although the same one is used every single time).

The pace starts off rather slow, but as the player continues to win and increases his or her boxing attributes, the game flows really well!

The only downside about this game is that the difficulty is pretty much nullified once the player manipulates a particular combo against the ropes, or corners.

As for the music, it’s top notch and has one of the most memorable sports tracks around, gotta love that in your face title screen, it really sticks out!

While the sequel, Greatest Heavyweights, is actually an overall better game with more fighting options and a greater variety of boxers, Evander Holyfiel’s “Real Deal” Boxing came into my life first, thanks to my cousin Ruben, so it’s a sentimental favorite of mine.

It also deserves an extra point for containing one of the greatest in-game cheats: “The Beast”, a Hulk-like boxer with maximum power, yeah! Incredibly fun to use, but cheap as hell! This game’s the real deal!

6.Wrestlemania The Arcade Game
As a huge wrestling fan at the time of this game’s release, I wasn’t sure what it was going to play like, since all of the previous wrestling games such as WWF Raw and WWF Royal Rumble seemed nearly identical.

Fortunately, Wrestlemania The Arcade Game provided a refreshing over the top twist to the WWF video game line-up. It’s kind of like Marvel vs Capcom but with wrestlers, brilliant! Tons of crazy combos and wacky action to be found in this one!

While the actual arcade version is probably much better, at least the Sega Genesis version included all of the wrestlers, as the Super Nintendo version excluded Bam Bam Bigelow and Yokozuna for whatever reason. Those guys are so fun to play as too!

7.The Terminator
After watching the movie and absolutely loving it, I got inspired to check out the video games, but the only one that I was able to find at the time was this version.

At first, this seemed like a super tough game, because once the player loses a single life, it’s Game Over! However, as I got more familiar with the controls and the gameplay, I was able to terminate it!

I only wish that the game was a bit longer and featured a driving section like most of the other versions. It’s still a blast while it lasts though and the music is Terminatorrific!

I’m really surprised that you didn’t review this game, James! Check it out someday if you can!

Love the love for Sonic on your list 🙂 Pardon the redundant sounding sentence. Sonic 3 & Knuckles (combined) is easily my favorite Sonic game, and one of my favorite games of all time. I was a Sega kid growing up, I never had a Nintendo or an SNES until I was a teenager. Though Donkey Kong Country was my mistress when I was younger. I’d play it at my neighbor’s house whenever I could.